Blue Checkmarks Are Coming To Gmail

Are You Gmail Verified?

For users who were disappointed to lose their classic blue checkmarks on Twitter following CEO Elon Musk’s latest changes, have no fear. Now, you can get one on Gmail (GOOGL) instead.

Verification is a common practice across social media platforms. Pinterest (PINS), LinkedIn (MSFT), TikTok, and the Google-owned YouTube all offer some form of account verification. The goal of these features is typically to help protect users from fraud.

But verification has made more controversial headlines in recent months with Twitter and Meta Platforms (META) asking users to pay a monthly subscription fee for their checkmarks. Google is the latest company to roll out a new verification system, this time for Gmail users.

What’s Included

The checkmarks — which, like Twitter’s much-discussed verification symbol, will also be blue — will be available for both personal and workspace Gmail accounts. They will appear alongside Gmail’s existing Brand Indicators for Message Identification, or BIMI.

BIMI, which was added in 2021, is a Gmail security feature requiring users to meet specific criteria before they can include a logo for their Gmail account. These measures were developed to keep scammers from uploading a logo of a known brand as their profile picture and contacting potential victims under the guise of customer support.

Now, in addition to BIMI verification, you’ll start to see blue checkmarks that verify the person you’re exchanging emails with is who they say they are.

Stopping Spam

Unlike Twitter or Meta’s latest features, you won’t have to pay money to become Gmail verified. You will, however, be required to “use strong authentication” in order to verify a brand logo as an email avatar.

On social media channels, blue checkmarks are often viewed as a status symbol reserved for celebrities or other popular accounts. But the stated goal of the new Gmail feature is simply to identify and stop spammers.

Rollout of this new feature is currently underway, and you may notice these checkmarks in your inbox already. At any rate, it’s worth taking extra steps to ensure the person you’re talking to is who they say they are — blue checkmark, or not.

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